Islamic and Christian violence

The behaviour of some adherents to Islam has caused horror around the world. It is probable that many westerners only became aware of the violent nature of a minority of Muslims when the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were felled in September 2001 with huge loss of life, but incidents of a less catastrophic nature had been occurring long before then and have continued to do so, many of them perpetrated by the organisation known as Al-Qaeda.

In more recent times the age-old rivalry between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam have erupted into terrible violence in Iraq with the emergence of a new Islamic militant body called ISIS or The Islamic State, which seeks to re-establish the ancient Caliphate by force of arms.

The general impression in the West, therefore, is that Islam is an inherently violent and destructive religion that seeks to impose its will on the rest of the world and is not particularly worried about the means it uses to achieve this aim. Many Christians have taken the view that this shows how superior their religion is to that of Islam – they are the nice guys who are opposed to the nasty ones.

However, it might be worth taking a step back and give this stance a bit more thought. Islam is approximately 1400 years old, if dated from the year 610 when Prophet Mohammed had his first revelations from the Angel Gabriel, according to tradition.

So what was Christianity like when it was of a similar age?

I maintain that the behaviour of Christians during the 14^th and 15^th centuries was no better than that of the militant minority of Muslims who carry out acts of violence today. Anti-Jewish violence was rife across Europe, coming to a climax with the work of the Holy Inquisition in Spain in the late 15^th century but with a long history before that date.

Violence between Catholics and Protestants, with support from Popes and Monarchs, was conducted with great vigour during the years of the Reformation, although this occurred long after the 1400 year comparison year suggested above.

The Christians who conquered Central and South America during the 15^th and 16^th centuries used all sorts of oppressive measures to force their religion on the peoples they encountered.

The point I am making, therefore, is that religions seem to go through phases of violent imposition of their beliefs, and it might take as much as 2000 years for its adherents to settle down to a more tolerant attitude towards those who oppose their views, whether these people be inside or outside the organisation. If Christianity is any model, the period of time from around 1300 to 1600 years after foundation might seem to be particularly dangerous ones. If that is so, Islam is well within that timeframe at present.

© John Welford